Canada’s Maxence Parrot, Sébastian Toutant, and Spencer O’Brien are through to the slopestyle finals on the first day of Olympic qualifying.
The top four snowboarders in each heat automatically qualify for the finals, while other competitors must go through the semifinals in order to have a chance at a medal.
Parrot had the biggest showing of the day. No one could top the 19-year-old’s second run, which garnered a 97.50 score.
Parrot competed in a tough heat, which saw six snowboarders complete runs with scores of 90.00 and above. The men’s results can be found on CBC’s Olympic site here.
Got 1st in the Olympic Qualis!! Scored a 97.5!! So stoked!! pic.twitter.com/3JpxTK7ElH
— Maxence Parrot (@MaxParrot) February 6, 2014
Canadian Mark McMorris, 20, also competed in Parrot’s heat. He fell during his first run, but recovered with a score of 89.25 in his second.
That was good for seventh in the heat, meaning he will have to go through the semifinals in order to reach the medal round.
Toutant, 21, placed third in his heat, qualifying for the final in his second run with a 87.25 score.
Fellow Canadian Charles Reid, 23, came in ninth place. His best run garnered a 75.50 score. He will compete in the semifinals.
Well that was a good Olympic qualification today!! Made it straight to Final !! #boyyaa #canada #sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/4QBwimlR02
— Sebastien Toutant (@SebToots) February 6, 2014
Parrot and Toutant made headlines before their runs by chirping American snowboarder Shaun White for dropping out of the slopestyle competition. White, an icon in the snowboarding world, claimed the course was too dangerous.
Parrot and Toutant took to twitter to engage in a bit of trash talking.
Tweeted Parrot: “Shaun knows he won’t be able to win the slopes, that’s why he pulled out. He’s scared!”
And Toutant: “Mr. White… It’s easy to find excuses to pull out of a contest when you think you can’t win…”
Both deleted the tweets, but Parrot later offered an apology and explanation:
I’m sorry if I offence anybody. I just meant that it’s not as fun to compete at the Olympics when the riders underlights aren’t there.
— Maxence Parrot (@MaxParrot) February 5, 2014
Toutant offered an explanation to the Los Angeles Times’ Lisa Dillman:
Toutant on Shaun White: “I’m not hating him at all. He’s an awesome dude.” Said he deleted tweet bc people took it the wrong way. #sochi
— lisa dillman (@reallisa) February 6, 2014
Much more from @SebToots but one of the points he made was that the late withdrawal wasn’t fair to an American bc the spot was lost.
— lisa dillman (@reallisa) February 6, 2014
In the women’s event, Spencer O’Brien, 26, placed third in her heat with a 82.75 score, automatically qualifying for the final.
It’s been my life long dream to compete at the #Olympics and today I finally got to do it! Straight to finals on Sun! Thx for the love!!!
— Spencer O’Brien (@spencerobrien) February 6, 2014
Fellow Canadian Jenna Blasman, 20, placed sixth in her heat with a 60.25 score, and will compete in the semifinals. The women’s scores can be found here.
Slopestyle snowboarding, a Winter X Games staple, is making its Winter Olympics debut this year in Sochi. It places emphasis on completing a variety of difficult tricks at the highest altitude possible.
The men’s semifinal will take place at 12:30 a.m. EST on Feb. 8, while the final will be just a few hours later at 3:45 AM EST.
The women will compete the following day, with their semifinal at 1:30 a.m. EST on Feb. 9, and the final at 4:15 a.m. EST the same day.
